In the early morning hours of Thursday, July 31, 1997, police officers from the New
York City Police Department raided an apartment in Brooklyn, New York, based on a tip that
people in the apartment had an explosive device that they intended to use to bomb the New
York subway system. During the raid, the police arrested two men, Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer
(Mezer) and Lafi Khalil (Khalil), and recovered a pipe bomb in the apartment.

After the arrests, the police determined that Mezer and Khalil were Palestinians who
were in the United States illegally. It was also learned that Mezer had been apprehended
three times in the previous thirteen months by the Immigration and Naturalization Service
(INS) as he attempted to illegally enter the United States from Canada. After Mezer's
third detention in January 1997, the INS had begun formal deportation proceedings against
him, but Mezer had been freed on bond while the deportation proceedings were pending.
After his release, Mezer had filed an asylum application stating that he suffered a fear
of persecution if he were deported to Israel because the Israeli government wrongly
suspected that he was a member of a terrorist organization known as Hamas. Mezer
subsequently withdrew this asylum application, representing through his attorney that he
had left the United States. It was discovered that he had not done so when he was arrested
in the Brooklyn raid. Khalil was also in the United States illegally, having come to the
United States on a tourist visa that had expired.

The revelations about Mezer's and Khalil's illegal immigration status provoked
significant criticism about how their cases were handled, and generated requests that the
Office of the Inspector General review how both came to enter and remain in the United
States. As a result, we decided to undertake this review, which focuses on how Mezer and
Khalil illegally entered and remained in the United States. Before we describe how we
conducted our review and the organization of this report, we briefly discuss the press
accounts describing the arrest of Mezer and Khalil and the reaction to the reports about
their immigration status.

According to newspaper articles, at about 10:45 p.m. on Wednesday, July 30, 1997, a man
flagged down two police officers in Brooklyn, New York, and told them that some men with
whom he shared a nearby apartment were planning to bomb a New York subway station. This
witness was taken to a police station, where he described the men in the apartment, the
layout of the apartment, and the bombs the men had. At about 4:40 a.m. on Thursday
morning, July 31, a New York City Police Department (NYPD) Emergency Services Unit raided
the apartment. Upon entering the apartment, the police ordered Mezer and Khalil not to
move, but they ignored the order. The police shot both men when one attempted to grab an
officer's weapon and the other reached toward a black bag. Both Mezer and Khalil were
arrested and taken to a Brooklyn hospital in serious condition with multiple gunshot
wounds.

According to the press accounts, the police recovered a bombing device in the apartment
constructed of four pipes, each loaded with black powder and wired to a single power
source. It was reported that this bomb lacked a timer and was designed as a suicide bomb.
A senior law enforcement official stated about the device: "That thing was all set
and ready to go. It is not the kind of thing you plan to keep around unless you plan to
use it right away." New York Police Commissioner Howard Safir stated that each of the
four components of the device was reportedly capable of killing someone at a distance of
25 feet. It was further reported that a separate device made up of a single pipe bomb
wrapped with nails, but without a detonation system, was also found in the apartment.

According to newspaper stories, Mezer admitted while he was in the hospital that he
planned to plant a bomb in the New York subway system and also told the police how the
bombs seized in his apartment could be detonated or disarmed. Another newspaper article
reported that while searching the apartment, the police found a "suicide note"
written by Mezer in Arabic, which expressed hatred for Jews and Americans, denounced
persecution of Arabs, and said goodbye to his family. The article reported that police
also found anti-Israeli literature and a portrait of Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, the blind
Egyptian cleric who was convicted in 1995 of plotting to blow up the United Nations
Headquarters, a federal building, two tunnels, and a bridge in Manhattan. Newspaper
articles also stated that both Mezer and Khalil were Palestinians who grew up on the West
Bank of Israel and,according to reports on Israeli television, had "security
records" in Israel.1

Shortly after the arrests, the press summarized additional evidence that emerged about
Mezer's immigration history and his attempts to enter the United States illegally. One
article reported that since June 1996, Mezer had been apprehended three times attempting
to enter the United States along the northwest border between the United States and
Canada. After Mezer's last apprehension in January 1997, he had been placed in deportation
proceedings by the INS and held for three weeks on a $15,000 bond in an INS detention
center. He was freed in February 1997 after the bond was reduced to $5,000 and he was able
to post the reduced bond. The article reported further that at a deportation hearing in
April 1997, Mezer filed an application for political asylum, claiming that he would be
persecuted if ordered to return to Israel because the Israeli government considered him to
be a member of Hamas, but denying any association with Hamas. The article stated that at a
later immigration hearing on June 23, 1997, Mezer "withdrew his application for
asylum, and agreed to leave the country within 60 days. But he moved to Brooklyn."

According to newspaper articles, revelations about Mezer's immigration history left New
York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani "seething." On August 1, 1997, Mayor Giuliani was
quoted as stating, "I think it is appropriate to question why this person [Mezer] was
allowed into the country announcing that he was part of a terrorist group in Israel."
The mayor added, "Maybe in the future we can learn something from it." Mayor
Giuliani was quoted in another article as stating that it was "a mistake" that
Mezer had been "paroled into" the United States, which suggested that the INS
had allowed Mezer into the country temporarily without proper documents. INS officials
responded that the mayor was wrong, since Mezer "was not paroled. He entered
illegally."

On August 3, 1997, Mayor Giuliani criticized the policies which he said allowed Mezer
"to roam the U.S." pending his asylum hearing as "pure administrative
gobbledygook." Giuliani stated that "if someone is accused of being a terrorist,
then put them in jail until you determine whether it's true or not."

On August 4, 1997, Richard Kenney, a spokesman from the Executive Office for
Immigration Review (EOIR), the agency in the Department of Justice that is responsible for
adjudicating immigration appeals, responded to a news reporter who cited Mayor Giuliani's
criticisms. Kenney stated that there was no evidence that Mezer was actually a member of
Hamas and that Mezer's statement in an asylum application that he had been wrongly accused
of being part of Hamas was not "evidence" that he was in fact a terrorist.
Kenney added that the asylum process was confidential and separate from the law
enforcement process, because the asylum process was intended to protect individuals from
persecution in their home countries. Kenney said, "Enforcement is not an issue in
asylum cases, period. We don't use an asylum application to determine if someone is a
danger." Kenney stated that Mezer's statement would not have generated a law
enforcement investigation, and if immigration court or asylum officials had asked the
State Department and the Israeli government whether Mezer was a terrorist, it would only
have been in the context of determining whether he should be given asylum.

Our review focused on the circumstances surrounding how the INS handled Mezer's and
Khalil's immigration cases. We focused particular attention on the contacts between Mezer
or Khalil and immigration authorities, what happened when they came to the United States,
the legal proceedings involving their cases, and the reasons for the actions that were
taken by federal officials.

We began our review by collecting documentation relating to Mezer's and Khalil's
immigration proceedings, including Mezer's and Khalil's complete Alien Files (or
"A-files") which document their immigration cases, summaries prepared by the INS
describing Mezer's unsuccessful attempts to enter the United States illegally, the
transcripts of the hearings in Mezer's deportation proceedings, notes from the INS
attorneys who handled Mezer's deportation proceeding, records of the visa which allowed
Khalil to enter into the United States, relevant immigration law and regulations, and
background material on the immigration process. We interviewed the INS and government
officials who were involved with their cases, such as the INS officials who detained Mezer
three times in 1996 and 1997 along the northwest border, the immigration attorneys and
judges who handled Mezer's deportation proceedings, and the immigration officials who
allowed Khalil to enter the United States on a visa. We also interviewed various
individuals from the FBI, United States Attorneys' Offices, the Department of State, the
National Park Service, the U.S. Customs Service, the U.S. Secret Service, the
International Committee of the Red Cross, Canadian immigration authorities, as well as
Mezer's attorney. In total, we conducted more than 75 interviews of individuals who had
some involvement with these matters.

In conducting our review, we were mindful of the ongoing criminal prosecution of Mezer
and Khalil for their alleged attempt to bomb the New York subway. That prosecution is
being handled by the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York
and New York's Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), which includes representatives from the
New York City and New York State police departments, the FBI, the INS, the Secret Service,
and the Department of State. Mezer and Khalil are currently charged with several counts
arising from their arrests in Brooklyn, including conspiracy to use a weapon of mass
destruction, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2332a(a)(2). Their trials are scheduled for June
15, 1998, in federal district court in Brooklyn.

To avoid interfering with the criminal case, we did not touch on sensitive issues
relating to the pending criminal charges, including Mezer's and Khalil's travels within
the United States, information relating to planning of the alleged bombing, possible
motives for the bombing, specific facts about the evidence found in the Brooklyn apartment
on the day of the arrests, the identity of witnesses to the alleged bombing plot, Mezer's
alleged admissions to the police in the aftermath of his arrests, or other evidence that
could affect the criminal case. Rather, our review focused on their immigration status and
how their immigration cases were handled.

In Chapter II of this report, we address Mezer's case, starting with his background in
the Middle East, his entry into Canada in 1993, his receipt of refugee status in Canada,
his three illegal entries into the United States from Canada, and the actions taken by
U.S. immigration authorities each time. We then describe how and why the INS began formal
deportation proceedings against him after his third illegal entry, his detention on a
$15,000 bond, the reduction of the bond to $5,000, his release after posting the bond, and
his asylum application. We examine why he was not detained after stating in his asylum
application that he was suspected of being a member of Hamas, and the circumstances under
which Mezer's attorney withdrew his asylum application. We also address the suspicions of
the INS officers who first detained Mezer that he might have been involved in alien
smuggling.

Chapter III of this report describes Khalil's case. Contrary to the press accounts
which suggested that Khalil received a tourist visa to enter the United States, he
received a C-1 transit visa from a Department of State Consular Officer in Israel, which
allowed him to remain in the United States for up to 29 days while he was in the United
States in transit from Israel to Ecuador. We discuss how Khalil obtained this transit
visa, the Consular Officer's rationale for granting it, and the Consular Officer's reason
for not requiring that he travel to Ecuador through the United States in a transit without
visa status. We then discuss what happened when Khalil presented his C-1 transit visa to
the INS immigration inspector at JFK Airport in New York in December 1996, how the
inspector mistakenly admitted Khalil under a six-month B-2 tourist visa, and how Khalil
overstayed even this six-month visa and was illegally in the United States when he was
arrested on July 31, 1997, in the Brooklyn apartment.

In the Appendix to the report, we include two brief chronologies of the significant
events in Mezer's and Khalil's immigration cases.

Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer was born on October 2, 1973, in Hebron, on the West Bank of
Israel, where he lived until he moved to Canada in 1993. Mezer claimed Jordanian
nationality on his Israeli travel document. As explained below, Mezer alleged in the
asylum application that he later filed in the United States that since 1967 Israeli
authorities in the "occupied territory" in which he lived committed various
illegal actions against him and his family as a result of their Palestinian beliefs. In
that asylum application, Mezer claimed that this continual persecution, including at least
two unwarranted arrests and detentions in 1990 and 1991, ultimately led him to leave
Israel in 1993.2

On May 19, 1993, Mezer applied for a Canadian student visa from the Canadian embassy in
Israel. On July 6, 1993, Mezer obtained a travel document from the Israeli government,
which allowed Mezer to travel to any country that would grant him a visa and contained a
stamp allowing readmission to Israel if he returned by July 5, 1994.

On September 10, 1993, the Canadian Embassy in Israel granted Mezer a one-entry, T-1
visitors/student visa. The visa allowed him to stay in Canada as long as he was enrolled
as a student there.

A Canadian official told the OIG that Canadian consulates do not check an applicant's
criminal record before issuing a student visa. According to this official, even if the
Canadian embassy in Israel had learned that Mezer had been detained in Israel twice for
"security" offenses, this would not likely have resulted in denial of a Canadian
visa for him. The Canadian official said that any negative implications of these arrests
would have been tempered by the fact that Israel had granted Mezer a travel document.

According to Mezer's Israeli travel document, on September 14, 1993, he arrived at
Toronto, Canada, from Israel and was admitted based on his student visa. Mezer told the
National Park Service Ranger who later apprehended him attempting to enter the United
States that he had attended the Ontario Welcome House in Ontario, Canada in order to learn
English. Mezer also stated in his U.S. asylum application that although he went to Canada
initially, he "always intended to come to the United States and apply for asylum
here."

On September 23, 1993, less than two weeks after entering Canada, Mezer applied at the
U.S. Consulate General Office in Toronto for a nonimmigrant visa to the United States.
State Department records do not reflect the category of visa for which Mezer applied.
William Griffith, the Director of the Support and Liaison Visa Services for the United
States Department of State, told the OIG that State Department computer records reflect
that Mezer's request for a United States visa was denied as a "routine refusal."
The precise reason for this refusal is unknown because hard copy records of visa
applications are retained for only one year. According to another State Department
official, a "routine refusal" merely indicates that Mezer failed to persuade the
Consular Officer that if he was admitted to the United States, he would leave within the
required period. The official said the routine refusal could have been based on many
factors, including Mezer's age, lack of financial resources, or lack of family ties that
would motivate him to return to Canada or Israel.

According to the Canadian Field Operational Support System (FOSS) database, on November
12, 1993, Mezer filed an application with the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board to be
considered a Convention Refugee (CR) in Canada. A Canadian immigration official told us
that CR status in Canada is similar to asylum status in the United States. Canadian CR
status is granted when an individual has a well-founded fear of persecution in his home
country for reasons of race, religion,nationality, membership in a particular social
group, or political opinion.3

A CR applicant may remain in Canada while his or her application is pending. The
applicant is required to advise Canadian immigration authorities if he leaves Canada
before his case is adjudicated, and Canada is not obligated to accept him back into the
country. An individual who is granted CR status receives most of the rights of Canadian
citizens, other than the right to vote, and may remain in Canada as long as conditions in
the country of origin warrant a fear of persecution. According to statistics provided by
the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada has the highest approval rate for
CR/asylum applicants in the world.

The manager of the Enforcement and Intelligence Division of Canadian Citizenship and
Immigration in Vancouver, Canada, explained that while CR status allows the alien to
reside in Canada as long as he has a legitimate fear of persecution in his country of
origin, an alien with "landed immigrant" status in Canada has the right to
remain in Canada indefinitely and to apply for Canadian citizenship. An alien with CR
status must file an additional application to become a "landed immigrant" in
Canada.

While Canadian immigration authorities would not discuss the specifics of Mezer's
application for Canadian CR status, Mezer's private attorney told us that his Canadian CR
application cited the same facts as his later application for asylum in the United States,
which we discuss below. Mezer's attorney stated that in preparing Mezer's U.S. asylum
application she repeated many of the assertions contained in the Canadian application.

Canadian records reflect, and Mezer acknowledged in his U.S. asylum application, that
in 1994, while his CR application was pending, he was charged with using a stolen credit
card in Canada. Mezer stated that he ultimately receiveda one-year unsupervised probation
for this offense.4

On June 2, 1994, the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board held an initial hearing on
Mezer's CR application. According to a Canadian official, the purpose of this hearing was
to determine whether Mezer met the requirements to make a formal application to be a CR.
The Board issued a Notice of Decision on June 28, 1994, stating that it "determines
that this claimant is a Convention Refugee." This determination meant that Mezer met
the criteria to formally apply for CR status, which, according to FOSS, Mezer did on July
5, 1994.

A Canadian immigration official explained that even a serious criminal offense in
Canada would not affect Mezer's ability to receive CR status, which is based on whether
the individual faces persecution in his native country. On the other hand, a criminal
offense could affect Mezer's ability to eventually become a "landed immigrant,"
which is a more permanent immigration status than that of a convention refugee.

After Mezer's initial hearing on his CR application, he was charged with another crime.
Canadian and INS databases reflect that on May 10, 1995, Mezer received a conditional
discharge and one-year probation for a misdemeanor assault in Toronto. No further
information about this offense was available.

According to FOSS, as of December 1997, Canada had not taken any further action on
Mezer's application to become a CR. Canadian immigration authorities would not provide us
with any further information about the status of Mezer's CR application because of privacy
concerns.

1 Several days later, Israeli officials clarified this
initial report. The officials stated that their information indicated that Mezer had a
minor arrest record in Israel. The Israeli officials were also quoted as saying that
Israel had no information that Mezer had any connection with Hamas or any Islamic
organization.

2 Mezer asserted in his April 1997 U.S. asylum application,
and Israeli authorities confirmed to the FBI, that Israel detained Mezer for 42 days in
1990 for a "security" charge and for 88 days in 1990 to 1991, based on an
"administrative" charge. Both of these detentions were based on Mezer's
activities in demonstrations, such as rock throwing, in the aftermath of the Palestinian
uprising known as the Intifada. Israeli authorities confirmed to the FBI that Mezer was
not arrested for any terrorist activities in Israel. A Canadian official who had served at
the Canadian embassy in Israel also told the OIG that in his experience, it is very
unlikely that Israel would have issued a travel document to Mezer if he had been
apprehended for or suspected of serious crimes in Israel. This official stated that he
would not be surprised if Israel issued a travel document to an individual who was jailed
for participation in demonstrations, since this was common among young Palestinian men.

3 Evidentiary documents and witnesses as to the specific
claims made in individual's application are not required because the Canadians believe it
unreasonable to require individuals fleeing oppression to have such evidence. Rather, the
main evidence in the Canadian convention refugee process typically consists of the
applicant's statements on the record, supplemented by country conditions reports, human
rights reports, or Amnesty International reports.

4 Tony Cochlan, the Supervisor of Canadian Immigration at the
Canadian Port of Entry in White Rock, British Columbia, stated that Mezer's credit card
charge was reflected in FOSS. Cochlan said that FOSS reflected that Mezer had contact with
the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in 1994 regarding a stolen credit card charge.
FOSS did not contain any further information about this charge, including the disposition
of the case. Cochlan told us that FOSS cannot be accessed by U.S. authorities, although
Canadian law enforcement and immigration authorities occasionally share information from
FOSS with U.S. authorities if specifically asked. However, none of the Border Patrol or
INS authorities to whom we spoke was aware of this charge at the time of Mezer's
deportation proceedings or was able to verify the information on any computerized records
systems available to them.